Michael Jackson vs Lil Wayne

This past weekend was the two-year mark of Michael Jackson’s death; which brought several TV and radio tributes celebrating the legend that he was. However, there is never a conversation about Michael Jackson that doesn’t also touch upon the two allegations of child sexual abuse, or the other eccentricities that he displayed. There are many opinions out there about him, ranging in extremes from being a tragic hero to being a calculating pedophile. My opinion, as usual, tends to stay away from the extremes. My opinion, which I’m about to go into, is truly an opinion; I’m not basing my opinion on any hard facts or research, just open-minded observation, subject to my own personal biases. And when I say open-minded, that’s not meant to be a subtle jab at other opinions, but instead a statement meaning that I didn’t intentionally immediately discount anything in forming my opinion.

I found Michael Jackson – the life, the legend, the person, the entertainment figure – fascinating. Humanly fascinating, psychologically fascinating, musically fascinating. Not the “charming” definition of fascinating, but the “interesting” definition of fascinating. It seems to me that a study into Michael Jackson’s character and actions would be a study into a series of traumatic events and a stolen childhood, the combination of which stunted the psychological growth and development in several areas of his character.


I came to that conclusion as I was watching the infamous two-hour “documentary interview” led by Martin Bashir: “Living With Michael Jackson”, which aired in 2003. That documentary was the one where he infamously climbed up in his “giving tree”, where he was shopping in Las Vegas, and where he talked about the incident where he held his baby over the railing in Germany. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_With_Michael_Jackson. The whole time I was watching that interview, I felt like I was watching an eight-year old trapped in the body of a grown man. His mannerisms, his tone of voice, his spontaneous urge to run and play, or to buy whatever he wanted “because he wanted to” all reminded me of something that a kid would do. And it made me think that if that were the case, maybe he actually related to the world and his surroundings in the same manner as an eight-year old, with sleepovers and wanting to sing and dance all day.

Now, I’m not trying to defend his behavior, I’m just merely offering an explanation. What I do find disturbing or tragic is this; nowhere throughout his life is it obvious that anyone tried to get him some help, some counseling, some therapy, some mentoring, anything. It seems that his appeal as an entertainer, or his fame, was either blinding to those who could have offered help, or worse, an invitation to take advantage. And of course, this isn’t the first or last example of this occurring in pop culture, but I think it’s a relatively extreme example. From an entertainer standpoint, from a songwriter standpoint, he was extremely dedicated to his work and his fans and he was aware of how he could use his icon status to try to make changes in the world, to “heal the world, make it a better place, for you and for me and the entire human race.”

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On the flip side, I read an opinion piece posted online, written by Syracuse University’s Dr. Boyce Watkins, which states a strong viewpoint about the current state of Hip-Hop and the media outlets that propagate it. http://newsone.com/newsone-original/boycewatkins/dr-boyce-bet-the-new-kkk/.  The main quote I’ll center on from his piece is the following:

Perhaps a day will come when those of us who know destructive music when we hear it – will actually have the discipline to draw lines and seek accountability – rather than look the other way. It’s not as if you can argue that Lil Wayne is actually GOOD for Black America, and it’s small-minded to justify a man’s reckless behavior just because he’s wealthy.

Rap music and Hip-Hop have always been in my list of musical tastes, and Rap/Hip-Hop, as with everything, has morphed and developed and changed over the years. Rap started out in a lighter form, in the early 80’s, with good dance beats and artists who could rhyme lyrical lines to align with those beats. The main goal of rap, in its beginning, was purely entertainment. Then rap started to change in the mid-80s, where artists started writing lyrics with messages; messages of social consciousness, of discussing issues within the Black community. And in the late 80s, those messages morphed into an uncensored storytelling of life in the toughest ghettos. And as each morphing occurred, the earlier forms of rap didn’t vanish; instead, each change has been additive.

The next change, though, in my opinion, is the change at the top of the slippery slope to where rap music is today:  destructive, in the opinion of Dr. Watkins; an opinion I agree with. What started as simple but no-holds-barred documentaries has become the type of embellished storytelling where each artist, or “storyteller”, has to top the last story; to one-up, to exaggerate, to boast, to ad-lib. And inevitably, at some point in the “one-up contest” as I’m labeling it, the question of validity does come up, and now it’s up to the storyteller to either insist on the story being true, or to come clean and potentially face ridicule. And unfortunately, it seems as if things have gotten to the point where artists are living the lifestyle portrayed in this morphing of rap music in order to prove the validity of the claims made in the message.

And it is destructive. I don’t think the connection can ever be proven as undeniable fact, but at the same time, I don’t think the connection could ever be undeniably disproven. All I do know is that, as the opinion piece linked above, and many other studies and opinions have noted, the types of crimes “glorified” in the lyrics of the extreme versions of rap music have been growing issues in many inner-city neighborhoods.

And I will admit, I still like the rap music that came out at the beginning of the third “morphing”; the so-called “gangsta rap.” The lyrics, if I paid attention to them, are quite rough, but some of the music quality, the beats, the background, the musical picture, created by Dr. Dre, Tupac, Busta Rhymes, is quite intricate. But I have to agree with the quote I included above. A line does exist. It exists in different places for different people. But when entertainers cross wherever I place my line, I cannot in good consciousness continue to follow.

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So, as I said, this is all my opinion. I didn’t base my opinion on any hard facts or research, just open-minded observation, subject to my own personal biases. And when I say open-minded, that’s not meant to be a subtle jab at other opinions, but instead a statement meaning that I didn’t intentionally immediately discount anything in forming my opinion.

Did Michael Jackson cross the line for me? I was able to separate the music from the person, and in neither case did he cross the line, though as I said, I wish he had been able to get some help, some counseling, some therapy, some mentoring, anything.

Do some of the extreme rappers today cross the line for me? I’m having a hard time being able to separate the music from the person, and in both cases, that line is crossed for me. Though I will add here, I wish these artists had been able to get some help, some counseling, some therapy, some mentoring, anything to keep them out of trouble, and worse, directly or indirectly being destructive to communities that are already struggling on their own.